Malaga’s best defensive work came high up the pitch. Baptista and the second central player (often Joaquin, but sometimes Duda or Isco) didn’t press Dortmund’s centre-backs energetically, but instead dropped deep and prevented easy passes being played into Ilkay Gundogan and Sven Bender.

This was the game’s defining feature. Crucially, it meant that the match was played at a very slow tempo, which benefited Malaga. Had this been a high-tempo game of quick passing and pressing, Dortmund would surely have emerged victorious. Instead, they spent long periods playing the ball slowly between their two centre-backs – who completed more passes than any other players. Considering Dortmund always needed a goal to progress (until the 93rd minute), keeping the ball at the back for so long was unhelpful.

The lack of pressing meant Malaga could keep a deeper defensive line – playing too high up was their major problem in the first game. Between the forwards and the defence, Camacho and Jeremy Toulalan stuck tight together, playing as a unit and focusing upon minimising space between the lines. They closed down Gundogan and Bender when necessary, although those two rarely received the ball because of the good work from Malaga’s forwards.

With Neven Subotic and Felipe Santana unable to get the ball forward, Gundogan tried dropping between the defenders, allowing Dortmund to push their full-backs higher up the pitch. These experiments weren’t particularly successful, despite the Malaga full-backs tending to track runs from Blaszczykowski and Reus inside, leaving gaps on the flanks. After a while, Dortmund were having such problems getting the ball forward, that Mario Gotze dropped incredibly deep to collect possession, since he was unable to get the ball between the lines.

Dortmund were much less fluid than in the first game, with Gundogan less of an influence. Malaga denied him time on the ball, forcing him into simple sideways passes – but it’s also arguable that Bender is a less suitable partner for him than Sebastian Kehl, who was more disciplined with his positioning and allowed Gundogan great freedom. Today, his passes were much less vertical than in the first leg.

Malaga attacks

Malaga attacked mainly through their front four, with support from Jesus Gamez bombing forward down the right, sometimes taking advantage of Reus’ narrowness. The majority of Malaga’s attacks went down that side, with the combination of Gamez, Duda and Joaquin working very nicely. Malaga’s top two passing combinations were Gamez to Joaquin, and Gamez to Duda – showing how the two attacking midfielders switched positions down that flank.

On the other side, Isco was rarely involved in the first half. Baptista started quietly but then started to collect long balls and bring others into play. He also defended the left flank when Isco drifted inside. The opener, through Joaquin, came out of nothing – but was a decent example of Malaga attacking quickly, and the front four combining.

Joaquin actually threatened on two other occasions – headers from set-pieces. A common feature of the first leg was Dortmund’s inability to defend at dead ball situations – that continued here.

Dortmund’s equaliser was also out of the blue – but a tremendous goal that flowed quickly through the Malaga side with excellent one-touch passing. It started with the Polish combination down the right, and ended with great touches from Gotze, Reus and finally Robert Lewandowski finishing coolly. It was almost unstoppable.

Second

The goal gave Dortmund confidence, and throughout the second half they put together some good passing combinations. Lewandowski, quiet aside from his goal, started to drop away from the centre-backs into deep positions – this caused problems, as Malaga’s defenders tried to stick tight to him, opening up gaps for Dortmund’s other attackers to sprint into. Blaszczykowski wasted a good chance when Martin Demichelis, who was generally excellent, got dragged out of the back.

But the pattern was the same – Dortmund pressure, Malaga patience. At 1-1, Dortmund needed to score to progress, while Malaga were heading through on away goals. But Klopp knew a second Malaga goal would leave his side needing to score twice, so Dortmund remained cautious.

Klopp changes

Pellegrini’s substitutions simply replaced attackers with fresh legs, but Klopp changed things in the final third. Bringing on Nuri Sahin for Bender altered little, but a more crucial switch was Julian Schieber on for Blaszczykowski. This turned Dortmund into something more like 4-4-2, with Gotze now starting from the right, and Lewandowski playing a little deeper.

This nearly worked brilliantly – Gotze’s chance, when he was thwarted by a brilliant save from Willy Caballero, came after a one-two and a run in behind the two centre-backs, who were both getting too tight to Lewandowski and Schieber, acting as a ‘double false nine’, moving towards play and leaving only the two full-backs covering. They were too far apart, and Gotze should have scored.

Amongst all the Dortmund attacking and missed chances, Malaga’s second goal on the breakaway – scored by sub Eliseu, assisted by Baptista with Isco involved too – seemed to seal the tie in Malaga’s favour.

But Klopp’s final change, on 86 minutes, proved crucial. In theory it was odd – Gundogan, a midfielder, was taken off, with centre-back Hummels on. However, with Dortmund now playing long balls into the box, Dortmund could afford to be light in midfield. Hummels went to the back and launched accurate forward passes, while Santana and Subotic went upfront.

99 times out of 100, it wouldn’t result in two goals in four minutes. But this time, it did. On 91 minutes, Hummels’ long ball found Subotic in the box – he squared to Santana who was challenged, with the ball breaking to Reus to score into an empty net. That gave Dortmund renewed hope – and on 93 minutes, Santana again found himself free in the box to score a highly unlikely winner.

Dortmund were considerably worse than in the first leg. However, they demonstrated an ability to put together sudden, lightning-fast attacks from back to front, and their late Plan B was highly effective, if very simple.

39 Responses to “ Dortmund 3-2 Malaga: Pellegrini’s side defend well, but are unable to cope with late pressure ”

Michael, does it frustrate you that after 180 minutes of an intense tactical battle, the match was decided by Dortmund going ‘gung-ho’ and hoofing long balls into the area, and the referee and his linesman deciding to let them play on without offsides or fouls?

Kind of like playing chess for 3 hours with someone, then settling the contest with the roll of a dice…

Football needs to bring in the ‘DRS’ system as soon as possible. Each team would have 1 ‘review’ each match, if they opted to use it then a video replay would be used to either correct the decision (and give the review back) or uphold the decision (and remove the review option). Had this been in playing Dortmund would have won 2-1, and nobody would have been complaining. The only conspiracy here is that UEFA/FIFA love football being on the back pages, and controversy is one easy way of keeping it there.

No not really – I think it’s part of the fun. It’s basically like one of those 101 Great Games In One sets muddled up…

Besides, even a patient chess match can be decided with a sudden Rook attack…

rahul khond on April 10, 2013 at 4:33 pm

dont dwell into that territory its not your forte . there is nothing sudden in chess and if its sudden to you then you are not a good player .

montigol on April 10, 2013 at 1:52 pm

Football’s not chess lads.

johnygoodman on April 10, 2013 at 3:24 pm

yes it is

Agonzalez on April 11, 2013 at 8:58 am

Rafa Benitez would disagree

machete on April 10, 2013 at 12:49 pm

I know you have a policy of not discussing refereeing – since this is a site about tactics – but you can’t ignore them completely. Often your conclusion from a match would be drastically different if there weren’t any ref errors affecting the outcome.

But it’s not. The scoreline would be different, the conclusion wouldn’t be that different. Dortmund still threatened by going long – the change still worked.

machete on April 10, 2013 at 8:57 pm

Maybe this match isn’t a convincing example for my opinion, that’s why i didn’t mention it. I respect your principles, but it’s sometimes annoying – on the other hand I know that overstepping that boundary may be dangerous, because it’s a very arguable ground, so to say.

jack on April 10, 2013 at 10:14 pm

We all know there are errors, in all sports, from the officials a lot of the time. It is part of the game. So mentioning its effects on the outcome would be nice. After all, the most important part of the game is the score ,and if something has a big influence on the score, then it should be mentioned. Even so i like the analysis of the games. I get to learn a lot. Thx.

Darryl on April 11, 2013 at 1:05 am

Ironic. That’s the trait of ZM that keeps me coming back for more. Talking about the fundamentals is infinitely more interesting than talking about poor refereeing decisions and other forms of controversy. Goal.com is the site for you if your into that kind of stuff.

This was easily one of the best comebacks in recent memory. Absolutely cannot wait for the semi finals!

vladpony on April 10, 2013 at 12:51 pm

Poor malaga , denied by referee

Jeremy on April 10, 2013 at 1:07 pm

Or aided by one, they scored an offside goal as well.

seils on April 10, 2013 at 1:20 pm

brilliant insight, mate!

Alex on April 10, 2013 at 6:50 pm

There was one offside goal for each side, but Malaga’s offside goal was the only one that gave an advantage, Dortmund’s offside goal was just a lucky correction of the score.

Rajesh on April 10, 2013 at 1:06 pm

Felt really sorry for Malaga.
Dont have anything more to say.
Just one question Mr. Cox – How many times do you rewatch a match for the review, please?

I thought Malaga’s pressing was superb. Duda and Isco to stayed very close to the Dortmund full backs, meaning they weren’t a passing option and Joaquin and Julio Baptista split, with each player marking one of the centre backs closely, leaving Gundogan when he dropped deep, with no option but to play a riskier pass into the compact central midfield zone.

Santana and Subotic were forced into making 34 long passes between them – very un-Dortmund like!

actually Dortmund like to play lots of long balls. Problem yesterday was that a lot of those were played to the flanks to Reus, Goetze and Kuba who have trouble doing anything with them. The target man was Lewandowski, who usually does a good job wrestling centre backs for long balls with the other attckers hoping for flick ons (see the goals they scored at Real Madrid).

For all the talk about Dortmund’s modern quick passing football, they also have lots of 1980’s Watford or Wimbledon in them.

Yeah I’m not saying they don’t, but 34 long passes between two centre backs is a lot, especially for such a technical side in Dortmund!

Malaga’s pressing meant the likes of Gotze and Reus couldn’t get on the ball, and was crucial in keeping Dortmund at bay for so long, surely?

Cantoner on April 11, 2013 at 10:20 am

For your reference, Subotic played 7.5 long balls per game while Hummels 5.7, in Bundesliga

blub on April 11, 2013 at 3:29 pm

Until his injury Hummels was man-marked more often than any other player in the Bundesliga.

Until January Subotic even played the most passes of all players in the Bundesliga.
Subotic is very good when he can play without much pressure, which was often the case when the lonley striker marked Hummels.

Simon on April 10, 2013 at 8:13 pm

Truth is, as the game wore on (especially after Malaga’s second goal) Dortmund pretty much just decided to lump it into the box. It was very effective however as Lewandovski was brilliant at winning the first ball. I must say though, it is not often this strategy works when needing 2 goals in injury time. As for referee mistakes, it balanced out in the end as both teams got a offside goal during the match. Great game for us neutrals though.

Personally, I agree with Michael, I don’t believe that Joaquin or Baptista pressed Subotic and Santana at all – therefore they played played between them. A count on UEFA’s match-stats showed that Subotic, Santana, Gundogan and Bender made over 100 passes between themselves approximately 1/4 of all Dortmund’s passes in that match.

Mb on April 10, 2013 at 1:08 pm

That was possibly the worst I’ve seen Dortmund play in the last couple of years. They seemed nervous and unsure, which led to impatience in possession; they would constantly look to play through balls at the first given opportunity in the final third, instead of trying to get into better positions before doing that. It worked a couple of times, but most of the time it didn’t. The importance of Hummels for this team cannot be overstated, they need him to organise the attacks from the back. Santana’s habit of playing many long and inaccurate balls was very disturbing. But he got the winner, so I guess that makes up for everything!
On another note: the amount of offside goals in this and other games recently is a disgrace to the sport and jeopardises its integrity. If linesmen are unable to see these things then they should be allowed assistance, in form of video replays. If they are incapable then they should be replaced. I think the former is true, but who knows

Zet on April 10, 2013 at 1:10 pm

I think that Blaszczykowski->Schieber change was crucial for 2nd Malaga goal, as it was created on their left wing. Kuba was more reactive on wing than Gotze, and although somewhat shaky in final 3rd, he was more responsible at tracking back

C0ltrane on April 10, 2013 at 1:24 pm

It looked like Klopp made a change to 4-3-3 sowhere in the first half with Bender becoming the holder, Gündogan and Blaszcykowski the link players and Götze going right.

Blub on April 10, 2013 at 5:01 pm

Exactly, Klopp made that change after the first goal, then went back to 4-2-3-1 at half-time with Kuba central and Götze on the wing.

Sahin seemed to play some sort of Libero (looked like a makeshift three at the back for a while) when he came on, he vastly improved Dortmund’s passing from the back. I think that change was more crucial than Schieber.

mr.philosopher on April 10, 2013 at 1:31 pm

One of the most tactically intriguing matches I’ve seen in a long time, up until the 90 minute mark that is. Joaquin’s defensive positioning and work rate were outstanding. Demichelis magnificent at the back, except for the disastrous missed header that led to Dortmund’s second. Those two in particular so unfortunate not to be looking forward to a semi-final right now.

I thought Pellegrini’s game plan was wonderful. When I saw the team sheet I didn’t expect to see Duda as a right midfielder and Joaquin as a right sided centre forward, often the highest player up the pitch. But as you point out ZM, it nullified Dortmund’s build up play so effectively. Showed how a technically superior team can be beaten (well, almost) without resorting to Mourinho’s “We don’t want the ball, we’ll stick 10 players on the six yard line and hoof it” mentality. Pellegrini showed bravery and imagination and his team so nearly pulled it off. Hard luck Malaga

chriee on April 10, 2013 at 1:41 pm

This game perfectly showed how Dortmund rely on Hummels in my opinion. The build up play was as bad as i haven’t seen it from Dortmund for a long time. It was a smart move by Malaga not to press Subotic and Santana knowing they have limited passing abilities. If Hummels had played Dortmund would have either had a great passer or in case Malaga would have marked him (like other teams often do) Gündogan would have had more space.

I loved how Santana pushed and fired up his teammates after the 1:2 and then scored the winner himself. Epic hero!

Ole on April 10, 2013 at 2:25 pm

Felt for malaga, so near yet so far. Their exit was probably down to two errors, overall Pellegrini’s tactics works. For the first Dortmund goal, though it was a brilliant team goal, it started with a sloppy loss of possesion in midfield. The injury-time equalizer was unfortunately resulted from Demichelis missed header. Had Malaga have bit more concentration and composure at the back, they might just have see this through.

your headline its its a lie! Malaga was under pressure the entire game. It was the referees that could not handle the pressure. Why use a Craig Thomson a second tier referee for this kind of games?

insertusernamehere on April 10, 2013 at 4:04 pm

“Bringing on Nuri Sahin for Bender altered little”

- I disagree. Part of Dortmund’s problems were due to Hummels missing. Without him, they lacked a ball-playing defender to open up play, particularly with precise long passes on Lewandowski or to the wings. They had to rely on these direct passes, though, as Malaga cut off the ways into the midfield. Bender is a purely holding player, so it was Gündogan who had to drop deep to help. For all his qualities in ball retention and incisive short passing (and he’s been really great the whole season), Gündogan is not someone who can play a precise 60 m ball, and one could really see that neither are Subotic & Santana. On the other hand, Sahin is much more comfortable playing these sort of Stevey G Hollywood passes, which forced Malaga even deeper and made the game more of a physical contest than it was before. This, of course, played into Dortmund hands, as Malaga’s pensioners began to tire.

I would even argue that the case that has been made by the media re tactics not being an issue in injury time anymore is completely off the mark. Klopp made the right changes and played the card he’s been dealt right. Nothing too original, of course, but if there was a game in which bringing on the big lads was a feasible way to grind out a winner, we saw it yesterday.

Nick on April 10, 2013 at 4:52 pm

Don’t know why it is so hard for UEFA to implement replays just do it like the NFL, Get a TV feed of the match (they have every angle)and take the 4th official and sit him in front of it. If there are any questions of offsides or the ball crossing the line just provisionally call it a goal. Go to the replay, if there was offsides then callcoffsidesnid the ball never crossed the line it’s a goal kick. It would take 90 seconds and would just lead to longer injury time.

It seems as though theres a trend in the ‘you have the ball’ brigade against counterattacking sides. Real kind of got away with it against Manchester United, but they’ve been caught without a ‘plan B’ in La Liga a number of times. If Dortmund and Real do face each other, I wonder which team would want the ball?

hwk on April 11, 2013 at 6:44 am

But Real and the Borussia did face each other in the group.

The semifinals will be interesting. It’s possible to have two ties for detection of ‘national champions’.
Or, we may have Barca against a German team, what did not happen that often. Bayern – Barca over two games would be nice.

Cantoner on April 11, 2013 at 10:26 am

Dear Michael,

“The lack of pressing meant *Dortmund* could keep a deeper defensive line – playing too high up was their major problem in the first game. ”

Should it be Malaga instead?

ballin on April 13, 2013 at 3:06 pm

All the conclusions being made here wouldn’t have mattered so much were it not for BvB’s wastefulness in front of goal. Granted Malaga played the waiting game perfectly but it would have been rendered moot had BvB executed their moves with better accuracy.Except Vs City they have been so efficient in front of goal up till this Malaga tie , Gotze once more was the culprit then. All in all its the worst I’ve seen BVB play in a while also.